Garment tensioning means



April 8, 1952 2,592,143

M. M. ISAACS GARMENT TENSIONING MEANS Filed Aug. 20, 1948 2 SHEETS--SHEET 1 April 8, 1952 s cs 2,592,148

GARMENT TENSIONING MEANS Filed Aug. 20, 1.948 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 lmmmi fig Patented Apr. 8, 1952 GARMENT TENSIONING MEANS Marcus -Manly Isaacs; St. Leonards, New- South I Wales, Australia Application August 20, 1948;. Serial No. 45,336 In Australia September. '24,, I947- 8 Claims.

For'the tensioning of waistbandsof garments,

for instance self-supporting trousers, it has been proposed in my Patent No. 2,474,629,; dated June 28, 1949, to provide two pouches in spaced and opposite relationship on the waistband and to place in these pouches supporting members carrying respectively a hook and a co-operating engagement element, each supporting member having a base for accommodation i'n-one of said pouches, the width and contour of which corresponds to the width and contour of the respective pouch. The arrangement oithepouches on the waistband is such that in use the bases of the supporting members transfer the closing strain evenly over the entire-width of the pouchesand hence of the waistband, and thus assist in keeping the waistband uncrumpled and provide greater comfort for the. wearer.

A feature, common to the forms of'tensioning means described in the specification of my said co-pendingapplication, is that the base of one supporting member is associated with a. hook element and the base of the. other element: with a co-operating eye element- In one specific variant described and shown in the prior specification, a, resilient element is arranged. between the two members, said resilient. element. being associated either with the hook member. or with the eye member of the device.

It has been found that greater simplicity and economy in the production of tensioning means according to the last-mentioned variant, and of similar structures, can be achieved if the supporting members for insertion. in the pouches of the waistband on the one hand, and the re.- silient element on the other hand, are separate integers suitable for releasable. attachment to one another. These advantages are even more pronounced if the supporting members are of identical construction so as to be. interchangeable.

With this in view the present invention relates to a modified and improved tensioning device for use on garments; comprising two pouches secured to the garment in. spaced and opposed relationship, each said pouch having an. open mouth and a closed bottom, two support.- ing members each having a base. accommodated in one of the pouches each base having a transverse width and an end contour corresponding to the width and bottom. contour respectively of.

' its pouch, and a separate detachable connecting link for said supporting members, the arrangement and. spacing; of the pouches on the. gar ment being such that, in use, the bases of the. supporting members connectedby. said, link. are

a urged into engagement each'with the bottom of its pouch.

In the-drawings, Figs. 1 to-6 show, each inperspecti-ve view and by way of example, various forms of supporting members according to this invention, whilst Figs. 1A to 6A depict, each in perspective view, a connecting link' suitable-for use with the supporting members illustrated respectivelyin Figs. 1 to 6.

Fig. 1 shows two spaced flaps A andA in opposed relationshipto one another on the waist-- band of a garment, for'instance on a pair ortrousers. The flaps A, A are formedwith pouches B, B respectively, of suitable depth and-of awidth w whichsubstantialI-y equals that of the flap in wh-ic-h it is formed.

In the form shown in Fig. I the supporting members C, C of the device each comprise a plate element or base N1 of sheet. metal or other sheet material, the transverse width of which equalsthat of the-pouchB -or'B wherein it is accommodated for use. The contour at one end Hot eachelement. [0 corresponds accurately to that of the bottom of pouch-B or B respectively.

Near: its opposite end each elementto is provided'. with apin t2, and between said pin and the-end it, atongue 1:3 0! spring wire is permanently secured tothe element: It. Theelement HI is. slightly curved longitudinally: and transversally: as'shown. in Fig. 1. so. as to constitutea shallow concavity which accommodatesthe pin l1 and tongue l3; and to correspond approximately to the contour of the closed garment in use:

In; useona waistband. or a. section thereof, the members'Ci, C are inserted into. the. pouches B and 13. respectively,.and are joined by: astrap D; (Figs. 1. and; 1A). of leather; rubber, or other suitable material. which is. formed with a number of..ho*1es..l;4,.two offwhichare: engaged; over the pins; i2 respectively of the supportingmem hers C. and Q The. tongue l3 of. each member sprimg against. its base plate It and in this. way: each. memberacts as a clip preventing. unintentional disengagement: of the member from its.v pouch after. insertion therein. The. tongues H! in usealsa serve as guides. for the strap D.

The closing strain is: transmitted to the. pouches B and B by the supporting: members C and C the plate elements lill of which bear with their-ends. H againstthe bottom portions oi, these pouches, engaging these. bottom pore tions. over. their entire widths Thus the mem- 1 bers- C. C and band I). tension the flaps A. and? A of the waistband across their entire widths, thereby minimising the formation of wrinkles, folds and other distortions of the waistband during wear of the garment, and also spreading the closing stress on the wearer over a greater area, to his greater comfort.

It will be seen from Fig. 1 that the supporting members C and C are of identical construction and are, like the pouches B, B symmetrical each with respect to its longitudinal axis X, so that they can be mutually interchanged. This greatly facilitates the packing, as well as the use of the device.

Fig. 2 of the drawing depicts a modified form of supporting members C, C which diflfer from those shown in Fig. 1 by the provision on the base III of a number of spaced pins I2 I2 I2 permitting attachment of 9, connecting element D in any one of various positions, for proper adjustment of the tensioning device.

The connecting element D (Fig. 2A) is in this case provided with single loops l5, [5 at its opposite ends, to be passed over selected pins of the two members C and C thus permitting regulation of the tension to be applied to the waistband.

In the variant of the supporting members C, C depicted in Fig. 3, the base II) of each element is formed with a returned tongue Hi the tip of which is returned to constitute a hook IT. The tongue 16 of each member C, C is sprung against its base plate and thus acts as the clip which prevents undesired disengagement of the member from its pouch.

The members C and C are each made of a blank of sheet material of suitable shape, folded to form the base It), tongue l6 and hook II. Each member is slightly curved to correspond to the contour of the garment in wear.

For tensioning the waistband the supporting members C, C are joined by a detachable connecting link D (Fig. 3A) which, in this case, consists of a rubber band [8 with eyes 19 secured to its ends, said eyes in use engaging the hooks I! of the said tongues l6, l6.

Fig. 4 of the drawing shows a form of the tensioning means which differs from that according to Fig. 3 in that the tongues [6 are each provided with an eye 20, which may be pressed out of the sheet material of which the members C and C are made. Accordingly the connecting element D (Fig. 4A) is provided at its opposite ends with hooks 21 which in use engage the eyes 20 of the tongues l6, Hi.

In Fig. 4A the connecting element D is shown as comprising a flat metal coil spring 22 as its resilient element. It is to be understood, however, that the resilient element may alternatively be constituted by a rubber or other elastic band.

It is by no means indispensable for the two supporting members of the improved device to be identical. Fig. shows a modification of the tensioning means according to this invention wherein member C is formed with a hook 23 returned from a tongue I6 whilst member C is provided at the end of tongue I8 with an eye 24.

The connecting link D (Fig. 5A), the body of which consists of an elastic band I8, is provided, accordingly, with an eye 25 at one end and with a hook 26 at the opposite end, the eye 25 in use engaging the hook 23 of member C, and hook 26 engaging the eye 24 of member C It will be further seen from Fig. 5 that the two tensioning members C and C may consist entirely of suitably profiled resilient framing made, for instance, of pressed steel, the tongues It and I6 being constituted by (wire) loops returned from one end of each base I0 respectively. The required resiliency of each base I0 is secured by the provision of gaps 30 in the end sections 3| 0! the base.

When inserted in the afore-mentioned pouches, the sides of the bases I0 of these members are slightly elastically compressed and thereby keep the flaps or other waistband parts containing the pouches in transversally taut condition.

The band l8, in the variants described with reference to Figs. 3 and 3A, or Figs. 5 and 5A, need not necessarily be a resilient band as the device will also be operative if the body of the connecting element D is made of non-resilient material, for instance, canvas or webbing.

A further variant of the improved tensioning means shown in Figs. 6 and 6A differs from that illustrated in Figs. 3 and 3A in that the hooks on the tongues iii of the members C, C and the eyes I9 on the connecting element D are replaced, respectively, by the male elements 21 and female elements 28 of press studs.

It will be understood that within the scope and ambit of the present invention, the elements of the improved tensioning means are capable of still further modification and I do not intend, therefore, protection by Letters Patent to be limited to the details of construction and design as hereinbefore described and as shown on the accompanying drawing.

Thus, for instance, the tongue of each supporting member may be sprung against its base plate so as to act as a clip in the manner described. This permits easy detachment of the supporting member from the garment, and re-attachment, whenever required, for instance, for laundering, dry-cleaning, or pressing. Where, however, the member is sewn into a pouch of the flap or other part of a waistband, resiliency of the tongue in relation to the base would not be required.

The invention is not limited to hook-and-eye fasteners, or press studs, but may embody any other type of attachment.

I claim:

1. A tensioning device for use on a garment comprising two pouches secured to the garment in spaced and opposed relationship and each pouch having an open mouth and a closed bottom, the mouths of the two pouches being away from and the bottoms of the two pouches being towards one another, two supporting members each having a base accommodated in one of said pouches and slidably removable therefrom, each said base having a transverse width and an end contour corresponding to the width and bottom contour respectively of its pouch and a portion of each supporting member projecting from the pouch receiving the base of that memher and towards the other pouch, and a separate connecting link detachably securable to the projecting portions of both said supporting members.

2. A tensioning device for use on a garment comprising two pouches secured to the garment in spaced and opposed relationship and each pouch having an open mouth and a closed bottom, the mouths of the two pouches being away from and the bottoms of the two pouches being towards one another, two supporting members each having a base accommodated in one of said pouches and slidably removable therefrom, each said base having a transverse width and an end contour corresponding to the width and bottom contour respectively of its pouch and being provided with atongue exterior to the said pouch sprung against said pouch, together with a separate detachable connecting link for said supporting members detachably securable to both said tongues.

3. A tensioning device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said supporting members and pouches are of identical construction and are each symmetrical about its longitudinal axis so that the supporting members are mutually interchangeable.

4. A tensioning device as claimed in claim 2, wherein each supporting member comprises a resilient frame structure contoured to constitute said base, and a loop returned from one end of said frame structure to constitute said tongue.

5. A tensioning device for use upon a garment as claimed in claim 1, in which at least one of the ends of the connecting link specified is arranged for connection to the supporting member associated therewith at any one of a plurality of points, the effective length of the connecting link being thereby variable.

6. A tensioning device for use upon a garment as claimed in claim 2 in which at least one of the ends of the connecting link specified is arranged for connection to the supporting member associated therewith at any one of a plurality of points, the effective length of the connecting link being thereby variable.

7. A tensioning device for use upon a garment as claimed in claim 1, in which the connecting link specified is of resiliently extensible material.

8. A tensioning device for use upon a garment as claimed in claim 2 in which the connecting link specified is of resiliently extensible material.

MARCUS MANLY ISAACS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 641,489 Bartelstone Jan. 16, 1900 759,542 McFarland May 10, 1904 1,347,705 Miller et al. July 27, 1920 1,385,533 Feinstone July 26, 1921 1,702,674 Veneman Feb. 19, 1929 1,705,562 Fretz et a1 Mar. 19, 1929 1,792,050 Turnbull Feb. 10, 1931 1,822,477 Caple Sept. 8, 1931 1,828,196 McCann Oct. 20, 1931 1,840,896 Groh Jan, 12, 1932 2,439,339 Grisanti Apr. 6, 1948 2,474,629 Isaacs June 28, 1949 2,544,333 Lembo Mar. 6, 1951 

